Show me how to love
by TheShinigamiUchiha
Summary: After a nasty break-up with Ginny Harry loses his faith in love. Will a certain blond be able to teach him to love again? Crappy summary, rated M to be safe. Slash in the later chapters, more warnings inside.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the plot of this story (and perhaps a few OCs). Everything else belongs to J.K. Rowling.**

 **Warnings: some dark themes, problems with mental health, quite a bit of angst**

 **Check the author's note in the end.**

"But Harry, couldn't we discuss about this?"

"No, Ginny. No. That's my final word on this."

"But - !"

"No."

That was the last word Harry Potter said before he slammed the front door of his house shut and leaned against the wall. He felt that he hyperventilated just a bit but right now it didn't matter. Ginevra Weasley, his girlfriend for three years and fiancée for a year, was now finally out of his life. He felt free.

A few years ago everything had seemed so clear and his future had been bright. He would marry Ginny someday since the girl had had a crush on him since she was eleven years old and at that time Harry had considered her attractive. They would have at least two kids, perhaps three and then they could all live together as a happy family. Harry would become an auror and Ginny would continue her Quidditch career in Holyhead Harpies. They would go to the elite parties, they would be the happy couple 'till the Death would part them.

But real life wasn't a fairytale and slowly but surely Harry started to notice things he hadn't noticed before Ginny and he had moved together. It had started when Harry had informed her about going out with his friends for a while. It had been okay to Ginny at first but...

 _Flashback_

 _Harry arrived home, closing the door after him. "Ginny?" he called his girlfriend. No answer. Harry checked the time; Ginny didn't go to bed this early so where she would be? He didn't hear the boiler either so nobody was using the shower. The worst scenarios flashed in his mind; Ginny being kidnapped, Ginny being tortured by the remaining Death Eaters, Ginny lying lifeless on the cold floor..._

 _Harry drew his wand from his coat pocket and started silently to walk towards the living room. The lights were turned off but nothing felt out of place. Even though he had been a target of various dark wizards and witches practically his whole life, Harry assumed it would be safe enough the switch the light on._

 _He wasn't actually prepared for what he saw._

 _There was no blood, no broken furniture, no bodies. Everything seemed to be normal, except Ginny who was sitting on the couch. Her eyes, red-rimmed and puffy, were staring at the wall in front of her. The gaze was almost empty but there was something Harry couldn't place, something paranoid, something dark. There were red marks on her arms; after the war Ginny had unconsciously started to scratch herself when she was stressed and now the situation seemed to have become pretty bad. It was a miracle she hadn't drawn any blood off her arms._

 _When she heard the footsteps she turned his head almost as fast as the vampire could. Her pale cheeks got some of their colour back when she saw Harry. "Harry..!" she sobbed, jumped up and practically flew to Harry to wrap him into a bone-crushing embrace._

" _Ginny?" he asked but the young woman just sobbed, not even reacting to his words. "Ginny? Ginny, what happened? Are you okay? Nobody was here? Are Ron and Hermione okay? George? Your parents? Char-?" he wasn't able to finish the list before Ginny slapped his cheek._

" _Ginny?" he asked in shock._

 _Ginny inhaled deeply a couple of times before she started screaming. "I WAS WORRIED ABOUT YOU, YOU IDIOT! YOU COULD HAVE BEEN KIDNAPPED! YOU COULD HAVE DIED!" she screamed from the bottom of his lungs. Harry wasn't actually sure what the hell was going on Ginny's head but he knew better than to wind her up even more._

" _Ginny! I was with Dean and Seamus for the whole evening, it's not like I was alone-!" he tried to explain but was interrupted by a furious Ginny._

" _YES! YOU WERE WITH THEM AND NOT ONCE YOU TEXTED ME ABOUT YOUR WHEREABOUTS! NOT ONCE DID I GET A PATRONUM TO TELL ME THAT INFORMATION! WHERE WERE YOU ACTUALLY, WITH SOME ANOTHER WOMAN!?" she screamed. Harry's eyes reached the size of the tea plates. Not once had he cheated on Ginny. She had no reason to doubt his loyalty. He knew that she would want an explanation but when he saw her grab her wand from the table he knew that there would be just one thing he could do._

 _He ran, ran away from the house to Neville's place. He couldn't deal with Ginny's temper at that moment._

 _End flashback_

Afterwards Ginny had apologized and told Harry that she had been a bit too concerned about him. She knew that Harry's job was a risky one and she couldn't help but be a bit alarmed all the time. Harry had forgiven her – just like all the other times after that.

The time when Ginny had decided to not to talk to him when he didn't text her back in two minutes. The time when Ginny had read his text messages and blamed him about cheating on her once again. The time when Ginny had stalked him around the town. And the time Harry would just want to forget about; the time when Ginny had told him that she would kill herself if Harry left her. Of course she had said before that being without Harry was difficult but now she had become obsessed. She started to talk about marriage, the children, their future together (not that Harry didn't want those, he loved talking about those things) and when she was in a mood for some passionate love-making Harry didn't have any objections; he loved those times when his girlfriend was acting like a normal human being.

But day by day her presence in the house had become too much for him to bear. He still loved Ginny, that wasn't the problem; the problem was the fact that he couldn't date a person like her. That love, the power that had saved him for countless of times, wasn't suddenly enough. The choice wasn't easy to make but finally he had decided to break up with Ginny.

Of course she hadn't taken it too lightly. The break-up had happened a few weeks ago – just a phone call and he had ended up as a single person. They had decided to continue being friends. That was okay to Harry but Ginny had had something more in her mind. She tried to manipulate him to come back to her, she tried to make Harry to begin feeling ashamed of what he did. Luckily Harry understood that and never gave up on his decision. They hadn't gotten back together and that wouldn't happen. Ever.

Sometimes Ginny appeared behind his front door to "talk" to him. Mostly she just tried to convince him that he had made a wrong choice, that she knew that she would make everything all right. She had told him many times that she wouldn't manage without him. And Harry had grown tired of it; he felt physically sick when he saw her. That's why he had slammed the door shut without giving her a chance to talk – there wouldn't be anything new. She would tell him the same things that she always told him. Harry didn't want to listen to it, not any more.

A part of him understood Ginny. The war had damaged many people both physically and mentally. Ginny had lost her brother and she had almost lost Harry. She hadn't known for a few months where her brother, best friend and crush had been. She had been almost killed by Bellatrix Lestrange. The result of those events was that she became codependent of Harry. At first he hadn't noticed it. Then, in the beginning, he had thought that it was pretty cute. When time went by he had understood that there wasn't anything cute about it; Ginny had become more and more sick during these years. Yes; her co-dependence had become so bad that he could call it an illness.

He felt bad for considering Ginny ill, he felt bad for breaking up with her but he knew better than well that if he had continued to date her his own mental health would have broken down. He knew that his friends and Ginny's relatives wouldn't be too happy with his decision but after all it was his life and he ruled it – and he wasn't willing to risk himself because of her.

He decided to call Neville – maybe he would be up to hang out with him? There was still some of the summer holiday left so Neville hadn't gone back to Hogwarts just yet and it was a weekend anyway. Harry felt himself nod. Yes, he would call Neville. At least he didn't need to feel bad about spending time with his friends any more.

He felt free.

 **A/N: It's me again, hi! I know that I said that I will publish a one-shot pretty soon but this idea just popped up and I wanted to start to write this so...**

 **Writing this is pretty hard to me since I have dated a co-dependent person and I had to break up with her since my own mental health started to collapse. Writing this is some kind of a therapy for me; my own experiences were an inspiration for this story. Ginny is a great character but somehow it just felt right to write her to develop a co-dependence on Harry. The war must have left some damage in peoples' minds and I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of those who fought in the war would suffer from this said... Problem? I don't even know how to call it...**

 **I'm not saying that co-dependent people would be horrible people. No; some of my friends are somehow co-dependent but they're loyal and helpful friends (including my ex) also. I can always rely on them when it's needed and I try to be there for them when they need me even though I'm "a lonely wolf" type of a person myself. I don't want to offend anyone with this fic; I just have some experiences, good and bad, and writing helps me to get through them.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the plot of this story (and perhaps a few OCs). Everything else belongs to J.K. Rowling.**

 **Warnings: dark thoughts, problems with mental health**

 **Oh my goodness, thank you for favs and follows! ;_; And for Ern Estine 13624 and kim-angel251995, thank you for your reviews! ^_^ I really appreciate them and I really try to do my best with this fic also! ^^**

 **Check the author's note in the end!**

He chuckled darkly, looking at the half-empty glass in front of him. Neville had gone to the bathroom leaving Harry alone for a short while. Just a short while truly but there was still too much time for him to think about everything that had happened. His thoughts were like a whirlwind. Fortunately there was King Alcohol to make him relax and forget at least a bit – though he had started to feel that he had obeyed the said "king" a bit too much tonight.

Neville came back taking his seat next to Harry and gulping some of his own beer down. "Ginny isn't going to give up, is she?" he asked then looking directly at Harry. Harry shook his head. "I don't think that she'll give up. She wants to mean something to me, even if it's just being friends – though I know that she would still prefer us being more than just that" the scar-headed one said and shook his head again. He knew Ginny too well by now; the ginger girl would try to stay in his life. He didn't actually want it – they had too much history – but who was he to deny her after all? She had also lost much and losing Harry completely would drive her insane at this point.

Neville looked at his friend a bit warily before opening his mouth. "Does she know about your... Interest in men?" he asked, picking his words carefully. Harry was a bit drunk already and Neville wasn't sure how his friend held his temper when he wasn't sober, at least not in a situation like this.

Harry seemed to freeze for a while but he didn't seem annoyed. He just looked deep in thought. "I could never explain it to her. Remember those times when she blamed me on cheating on her? If I had told her that I was interested in men too... Guess how paranoid she would have gotten. She wouldn't have said that, of course. She never actually said anything before I had done something wrong and then she just shouted at me or stayed silent or..." he ran out of oxygen and paused to breathe for a while. Then he took the last gulp of his beer and continued.

"Sometimes it felt like I was dating two persons at the same time. Ginny is a sweet woman when she acts like she used to act. But when the other side of her breaks its chains the Hell breaks loose too. I grew tired of being so confused; I mean, of course I loved Ginny and I guess that I still do a little bit but... I always did something wrong and I never got to know where I made a mistake. In my opinion I acted like a normal human being – I went to work, I spent time with my friends, I did my chores at home and I spent most of my free time with her. Just what did I do wrong?" he sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. Neville had fallen silent at some point and now he seemed to be deep in thought.

Suddenly the said friend got a text message. Harry almost jumped; he had grown to hate his mobile phone by now. He had actually left it home since he didn't want to read all those messages sent by Ginny. He didn't want to deal with those, not now. He simply didn't have energy to do that. Ginny should talk to her team mates, all of them were women so they could actually understand her, Harry concluded.

"...about to born!" Neville ended his sentence and without checking if Harry had heard him or not he rushed out of the pub, leaving all the Muggles to stare after him like they had seen a ghost.

Harry had to think for a while but then he understood what Neville had meant. After the war the Gryffindor boy had finally had the courage to ask Luna Lovegood out for the date. They had been close during the war too but now, when the Dark Lord was beaten, they had decided that there was some time for happiness too. They had started to date and pretty soon they had been engaged; they were a match made in Heaven. Of course Ginny had envied them and kept nagging about it – that's why Harry had proposed her in the first place, just to shut her up.

Neville and Luna's wedding had been a small, private event where hadn't been many people; just the Golden Trio, Ginny, Luna's father and Neville's grandmother. Just a couple of months later the couple was announced that they were having a baby – a little boy. Much to Ginny's disappointment Luna had asked Cho Chang to become the baby's godmother instead of her but then the blonde girl had explained that Cho had been one of her best friends in Ravenclaw and this was one way to keep the contact with her. Neville on the other hand had asked Harry to become the baby's godfather. Harry had been happy to accept; of course he already had Teddy Lupin but now his family would just grow. And now the baby would be born. Harry smiled despite his dark feelings.

With Neville gone there wasn't much point to hang out in the pub alone so he decided to walk home. Of course he could have just apparated but it was a beautiful night so walking sounded good to him. The cold air hit him when he stepped out of the door. Maybe the night would also sober him up a bit – the wind was truly cold. He shivered and started to walk towards his home, deep in thought. At least Neville had someone who was always calm and nice to be around. Of course Luna had some problems too and the couple had fought seriously more than once but didn't all couples do that? The point was that they usually had some real reason to fight.

Harry was a bit jealous of their happiness. Of course he was happy that two of his best friends had found happiness together but he was only able to imagine what it would feel like; to have a girlfriend one could actually reason with.

It wasn't Ginny's fault that she had become like that. Usually Harry blamed himself on everything; if he just had taken better care of Ginny this wouldn't have happened. If he had found the horcruxes faster, if he had been there to protect Fred... But they were just ifs. What was done was done and he couldn't change the past – well, maybe with the Time-Turner but one shouldn't mess with time and destiny too much. Still it was difficult to not to feel guilty. He really hoped that Ginny would find someone but at the moment it seemed impossible. Ginny wasn't ready to let go of him even though just before their relationship ended Harry had started to ignore her and treat her not so well.

Harry just couldn't help it. He knew that what he did was wrong but he had already cared too much about everyone and everything. Ignorance was a welcomed escape route for him. Of course Ginny hadn't liked being ignored – she had started to whine even more. Even some of her friends called Harry and blamed him on ignoring Ginny. "You should find time for your own girlfriend!" they had shouted without giving him a chance to speak. Yes, he should have found time but when nothing was enough how could one actually deal with the situation?

He just walked along the road without actually taking in his surroundings and that might have been the reason he bumped into somebody. "I'm sorry, I just - " his sentence was cut short when he looked at the person in front of him.

Even though the woman looked much healthier than last time Harry had seen her he recognized her right away; the blonde-black hair was just something everybody didn't have. Narcissa Malfoy looked at him with very confused look on her face. They both had the same question in their minds: _What are you doing here?_

 _And,_ Harry realised, _if she is here... Does that mean that also Lucius and Draco are here?_

 **A/N: So, the second chapter is here! I apologize for all the grammar errors etc I may have done... _**

 **Let me tell you another thing: when my ex and I had a great fight one of her friends actually called me and blamed me on everything. I mean, everything. I didn't actually have the chance to speak but when I did it winded this friend up even more. I understand her though; I'm not the easiest person to deal with. After the phone call my first thought was to get drunk and that was what I did. After the fight I actually just... Well, I don't know. I didn't actually stop caring but I just started to ignore her. I know that that's something I shouldn't have done but all I wanted to do was run away from the situation; I couldn't deal with it at all. Luckily my friends noticed that I drank a bit too much alcohol and they kind of told me to lessen my drinking. I will be forever grateful for that.**

 **I'm not sure how often I will write a new chapter but I guess I'll do so pretty often ^_^ Let me know what you think! :'3**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the plot of this story (and perhaps a few OCs). Everything else belongs to J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury.**

 **Warnings: Nothing in particular.**

 **Ern Estine 13624 – Thank you for your review! ^_^ It's nice to know that you like this story! :)**

 **Goose – I don't think that I spoke anything about gays? There are so many different sexual orientations that it would take me forever to list them all. But yes; I know that it doesn't work the way "Oh I'm a heterosexual, oh wait I might be gay". At least not usually. But I didn't actually say that Harry would suddenly be gay. Nope.**

 **SlytherinLegacie 338 – Thank you for your review! ^_^ Yep, that's what I think too – I don't usually write about things that I haven't experienced at least somehow (it's just not so easy). ^^**

 **Yes; Draco isn't far behind as you can see if you continue reading this story :) And yes – Harry is bi-sexual. In my opinion Harry is a character who cares more about the person and not that much about the gender. This is a question I can't answer; somehow I just have a feeling that Harry would have understood it pretty slowly that surely that he could be attracted to a man also. Not many people know about it, just his closest friends, for example Luna, Neville, George, Ronald and Hermione.**

 **This is actually also a part of my life; it took me a while to understand that I could find women attractive also and at first only my closest friends (back then I didn't have many friends anyway) knew about it.**

 **I hope that this chapter answers to your question about Narcissa walking around in a Muggle area! ^_^**

 **Check the author's note in the end!**

Narcissa was the first one to say something out loud. "Mr. Potter, what a surprise. May I ask what you are doing in a place like this at this hour?" she asked with only slightly surprised voice. In her mind she wondered what Potter was actually doing here. Was the Saviour of the wizarding world living in a place like this, surrounded by Muggles? The thought itself was enough to send cold shivers down her spine. To live among Muggles permanently... What a disgusting idea.

It took a while for Harry to register the woman's words since he was still very surprised to see her there but in the end he was able to answer. "I could ask the same from you but if you really want to know: I happen to live here nowadays" he said, looking at Narcissa with a hint of curiosity in his eyes. "It truly is a surprise to see you here. Is your family here too?" he asked, not really wasting time with being polite. Maybe it would have been a good thing to do but he was a bit drunk and he hadn't been known of his politeness before so he really didn't care even though he was talking to a member of the Malfoy family.

Narcissa, however, didn't seem to mind. "If you mean my husband and my son, yes, they are here too. We don't plan to stay very long though" she said, shivering in the cold wind. "Now, if you excuse me, I'll take my leave. The evening is cold and I don't want to catch a cold. I assume that neither do you. Good night, Mr. Potter" she said, bowed her head a little and started to walk along the street, to the opposite direction than Harry would be going.

The said young man watched her go. The woman was always polite; he couldn't actually say that she was nice but at least she was polite. Harry also knew that she had a soft spot for her family, just like Sirius had had. It must have had something to do with the Black blood. The Malfoys... Well, Harry didn't know how much they valued the family. Of course they valued the name, it was common knowledge, but he wasn't sure about the family thing. Shaking his head he continued to walk towards his apartment. He needed a warm shower; the wind was truly freezing.

In the meantime Narcissa was almost running to the house she was currently living in with her husband and her son. The wards welcomed her when she reached them. It didn't hurt to be careful, Lucius had said and erected the wards on their yard. Narcissa had agreed with him. They didn't want to take any risks, at least not now.

She knocked on the door twice. Not very long after that the door was opened by Draco who had a relieved look on his face when he saw her. "We were becoming worried, mother. What took you so long? Are you okay?" he asked, helping her to get the coat off her like a true gentleman. Narcissa smiled inwardly; they had raised their son well though she still felt bad for making him join to the Dark Lord's ranks. "I'm fine, thank you, Draco" she said and walked to the kitchen to pour herself a glass of red wine. Draco followed her and grabbed a Firewhiskey bottle from a closet. Lucius would want to drink it anyway so he would as well have some of it too.

They walked into the living room where Lucius sat, looking into the fire. He looked so tired, sad and... Old. Narcissa could almost feel the tears in her eyes; the war hadn't been too gentle to them. After the war Lucius had lost his job at the Ministry – of course they had been prepared to that but it had still felt bad to see him so broken than he had been last night. What they hadn't expected was that the Ministry had made them leave the Malfoy Manor. They were also prevented from going to Gringotts, Diagon Alley overall, Hogsmead and of course Hogwarts. That had meant that Draco hadn't been able to finish his studies.

 _Just another six months, Narcissa_ , she reminded herself. _Just six months and you'll be able to live in the Manor again. You'll just have to be patient._

Lucius turned his gaze to them when they sat down on the large sofa. His eyes were a bit bloodshot; was it because of the lack of sleep or too much normal whiskey, Narcissa couldn't tell. Sometimes her husband drank just to drown his sorrows. At those moments Narcissa felt weak, powerless. She couldn't actually help Lucius; the man had become more introvert after the war.

Draco uncorked the Firewhiskey bottle and poured it into the two glasses he had set on the small table. Without saying a word Lucius grabbed his glass and tasted it. "Good old Odgen, isn't it?" he asked, his voice a bit raspy. Draco nodded. "Yes, father" he said, also sipping his drink.

They sat in silence for a while before Narcissa spoke up. "I ran into Potter when I was on my way home. That's why it took me so long" she said, moving her hand in a circular motion and watching the wine move in the glass. She didn't have to look up to tell that Lucius and Draco had both frowned and were now staring at her, perhaps not believing that they had heard correctly. She didn't say anything either, just waited for her husband or son say something.

Finally Lucius broke the tensed silence. "Potter? The Golden Boy? The Saviour? What an Earth does he do here?" he asked. His voice was silent and a bit raspy but Narcissa could still hear that her husband was a bit surprised and annoyed by the information. She understood him pretty well; even though Potter had defended them in their trials he was still seen as an enemy, at least by Lucius who had been loyal to the Dark Lord almost to the very end.

Draco didn't say anything; the young man just stared into the fire. He couldn't believe his ears. Harry Potter, the one who had saved the whole wizarding world, was now living among the Muggles? The blond's eyebrows furrowed slightly. The last time he had heard something about Potter the man had been working as an auror and had lived at Grimmauld Place – whatever that place was, Draco wasn't sure. Had Potter given up his job, given up being a wizard?

"I have no idea. I just met him. I can't say that it wasn't a surprise... He seemed to be a bit drunk too" Narcissa said, sipping her wine. Lucius just stared at his wife with empty gaze. "Was young Ms. Weasley there?" he finally asked, taking a big gulp of his Firewhiskey. The older of the men grimaced; even though he drank pretty much these days he never got used to the burning taste.

"No. That was another surprise. I couldn't see Ms. Weasley anywhere. Weren't they supposed to be engaged?" Narcissa wondered, staring at the flames. Lucius shrugged. "I have no idea. And like I cared anyway. Even though the Weasleys are related to us I have no intention to be in good or even polite terms with them" he said quite bitterly.

Draco didn't pay attention to his parents. Of course it had been a surprise to hear that Potter and the Weaselette hadn't been in the same place at the same time but he had his own problems with his relationship. Astoria Greengrass, his fiancée, suffered from a memory loss sometimes. One minute all was fine and in the next she couldn't even remember his name. Draco was quite sure that someone had used Obliviate on her but the spell had failed and caused this.

The young blond sighed. I wasn't too easy to be with her. Sometimes she thought that Draco was just a stranger who had broken into the house. A couple of times she had tried to call the Muggle police; the poor woman hadn't been able to remember that she was a witch. Before the war she had had a brilliant mind. To see her memories and sanity slowly fade away was pure torturing.

Still Draco cared deeply about her. He couldn't say that he was in love with her; the marriage was arranged so he had no word in the whole deal. No, he didn't actually love Astoria but he cared about her deeply enough to stay by her side even though it sometimes felt almost too painful.

The three Malfoys then just sat there, each one of them deep in thought. Running into Potter had been a coincidence, it didn't have to change anything – yet each one of them had a feeling that something would change. It was Potter they were talking about and when he was around something always happened – and that something wasn't usually very positive thing.

 **A/N: Sorry it took me so long to post this chapter; I just took my entrance exam to the university this week and I was pretty nervous about it. Well, now I don't have to stress about studying anymore. At least not for a while.**

 **This chapter wasn't that easy to write anyway. I had to create the reason why the Malfoys are staying in the Muggle area but I just figured it out last night and then this chapter just kinda wrote itself. I know that I'm also pretty mean towards Astoria; I really do like her as a character also (even though they didn't tell that much about her) but... Yeah. As you can see the symptoms are pretty much alike to the ones of Alzheimer. My grandfather suffers from it and it truly hurts to see him like that. I just... Need to "write it out of my system" too.**

 **Anyway, tell me what you think!**


	4. A message from author

Sorry that I haven´t updated this week but I graduated yesterday and I was soooo busy last week... _ But don't worry, I will post new chapters soon!


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but this story (and probably a couple of OCs). Everything else belongs to J.K. Rowling.**

 **Warnings: I don't think that there's anything I should warn you about this time.**

 **Ern Estine 13624: Thanks! :)**

 **SlytherinLegacie 338: Thank you for your review! ^^ Yes, I had to create some kind of a background story for why the Malfoys are staying in the area full of Muggles. And yes - those two are very curious about each other :) And they'll meet pretty soon, I think - just don't know about the way yet but like you said, there are hundreds of options :D Thank you! :)**

 **Daddys little crazy bitch: Thanks! :)**

 **Check the author's note at the end!**

When Harry woke up next morning his head was slightly fuzzy. He grimaced; maybe it hadn't been a good idea drink some good old Odgen after arriving home. At least he didn't have too bad hangover but still the feeling was quite unpleasant.

It might have also had something to do with the fact that he hadn't gotten that much sleep. Harry had spent most of his night wondering about the Malfoy family. He just couldn't understand what the rich and powerful family was doing here in the Muggle London. They had their great manor and everything so why were they spending time here?

Harry rose from his bed and walked into the kitchen. He casted a quick _Tempus_ – it was eleven o'clock in the morning. At least he hadn't slept in since he had to visit his office in the afternoon. There were some papers he needed to look at once more.

The papers and reports about the Malfoys.

Harry poured himself a glass of pumpkin juice and went to sit on the sofa in the living room. He sighed; it wasn't actually his business what the blond family was doing here but it was once again the case 'curiosity killed the cat'. And this time he had nothing to lose; he just wanted to take a look at all those official papers and reports.

From the corner of his eye Harry saw a small, flickering light and turned his head to look at the object. It was the screen of his phone in the table next to the wall; apparently he had gotten a message or a call. It turned out that he had gotten both of them. Many times.

Harry felt his mood darken when he read through those messages. Apparently he should have been worrying about one certain red-haired woman called Ginevra Weasley. Once again she had cried that nobody cared about her anymore and she just wanted to die. The last message was the shortest.

 _'_ _Goodbye then, my love, my only one. Don't be mad at me… Goodbye.'_

It had been sent two minutes ago. Harry sighed and started to write a reply to her. Why did everything have to be so difficult and stressing right now?

At the same time the said red-haired woman was sitting in the kitchen of her new apartment, crying her eyes off. She couldn't understand why she acted like this nowadays.

She could quite well understand why Harry had broken up with her. Before the war she had been a naïve yet brave child; after the war she had become more and more paranoid and co-dependent of Harry. She hated herself about that, she truly did, but what was she able to do? After all, the love of her life had almost died in the hands of the greatest dark wizard ever. She had almost been killed too; the mad Death Eater, Bellatrix Lestrange, had decided in her crazy mind that it would have been Ginny's turn to go. Luckily her mother had saved her life and killed Bellatrix during that process.

Ginny wiped the tears off her face and walked to the bathroom. She forced herself to look at the mirror and see herself.  
The young woman who stared back had puffy, red eyes with dark bags under them. Her skin was sickly pale and her long, red hair hadn't seen a brush in days apparently. The sight made her cry even more. What had happened to the soldier she had once been? What had made her like this; a broken human who pitied herself? A human so broken she wanted to die just because her fiancé had left her?

She cried even harder when she thought about their break-up. She couldn't forget the hurt look Harry had had, she couldn't forget her own tears and blaming words aimed at her ex-husband. All those things she had said and done during their relationship…  
Now all she could do was blame and hate herself. Of course there was something wrong with her, otherwise Harry wouldn't have left her. She had done some mistakes she couldn't quite realize even now and they had led into this situation. She had tried to be the perfect and caring fiancée but it had been in vain. Harry didn't want her anymore and after their break-up she hadn't had an actual reason to live.

Of course she had her job but nothing more. There was nobody home when she arrived, there was nobody to kiss her goodnight and nobody to hug her when her world crashed down.  
There was simply nothing there.

That's why committing a suicide had started to sound like a good idea. What was the point in living if she just wandered around like a zombie, without true consciousness of her surroundings? She had found the answer quite soon; there was no point.  
At first she had been afraid of her thoughts, she had gotten scared and tried to talk to her friends. But there weren't many left; Luna had been pregnant so she had had other things on her mind, Hermione had been pretty busy at the Ministry and Cho… Well, they had never gotten along too well. She had also tried to talk to Fleur but something had prevented her from doing so. Maybe it had been Bill who had arrived home at the same time when she had begun to talk.

Of course she tried to talk to Harry too but it was too difficult nowadays. She found him hard to trust; the young man had promised her that they would spend rest of their lives together and then he had broken

Instead of actual talking Ginny had started to send him messages in which she threatened to kill herself or something like that. She knew that she was being unfair but she just wanted to know if somebody still cared about her.  
And Harry always answered. Ginny couldn't be sure if he was actually worried about her or did he just feel that he should answer but it was the same. The most important thing was that there was still someone who actually did answer her.

One of those moments was like now when she saw the screen of her phone light up. A message from Harry – finally. Those minutes had felt like forever. Ginny hated to admit that but every second alone felt like someone mentally stabbed her with an icy blade.

She clicked the message open.  
 _'Ginny, if you're still there, please answer me. I'm sorry that I didn't answer – at first I was spending time with Neville and when I arrived home I had a lot to think about. I'm sorry, Ginny, I truly am… I hope that you're still there. Oh, and you should visit Luna later today – she has given birth to their child.'_

Ginny smiled, a bit bitterly perhaps, but it was still there – the smile. Harry was still worried about her, he actually answered.  
She started to write her reply – even though it wasn't easy to see through the tears that had once again formed into the corners of her eyes.

Harry had cooked himself some coffee when he got a surprising visitor with bushy brown hair and strict look in her eyes. He took a sip of his coffee, wondering what on Earth Hermione Granger was doing in his apartment at this time of the day – especially when she bloody well knew that he was going to the Ministry in the afternoon.

But that wasn't something that one could say to Hermione when she looked like that.

Harry swallowed the coffee and then turned to look at her properly. "Hermione, what's wrong? You look like you had seen some slavery elves or something", he said, giving an apologizing look when her eyes narrowed dangerously.

She sighed and sat down on the chair, looking at the cup of coffee Harry had poured her while speaking. She shook her head. "Nothing like that but I could say that I saw something worse. I'm sorry to alarm you, Harry, but this might be something you and Ronald have to check out" she said, sipping her coffee. Harry stared at her, speechless.

After a while she continued. "You might remember Amanda Blackwood from the Department of Mysteries? She lives in this area… Or at least lived. Nobody has seen her in a few days. At first everybody thought that she was on a holiday but then someone checked out the list of holidays and she shouldn't be on a holiday yet."  
Hermione took another sip of her coffee and then looked directly into Harry's eyes. "Half of the Ministry's employees have started to believe that she has been kidnapped. She has too much important information, Harry, way too much. Even though it isn't sure that she has been kidnapped, people want you and Ron to take this case. Almost everybody else has something else to do and Kingsley wanted you to check this out…" she bit her lip, trying to figure out Harry's thoughts.

And there were a lot of those. Harry couldn't help but wonder if this had something to do with the Malfoy family. They hadn't been here for long, apparently.  
Then a horrifying thought came into his mind. His problems with people were forgotten when he forced himself to look at Hermione's eyes.

"'Mione… If she has really been kidnapped, would that mean that the remaining Death Eaters have found each other and started to form a group again?"  
If that was the case, there had to be someone for whom they would fight. And that meant only one thing; someone wanted to become a new Dark Lord. If that really was the case, they would have to find the culprit soon and make the chaos end – before it was too late.

 **A/N: Ehm... Hi? I know, I'm so late with this chapter and I haven't even updated my other fic yet! ;;_;; I've just been so busy at work and with my hobby and I've also been dead tired and stressed and... ;_; I'm sorry, I try to update more often!**

 **But yes, here it is, the new chapter. This time I also wanted to bring Ginny into the story properly. It may seem that I mocked her but believe me, I actually tried to understand what would be going on in her mind and really tried NOT to mock her. I guess that I need a lot of practise to write more about her - and I haven't even tried to write from Astoria's POV yet ._. This will be tricky for me too but I guess that I'll improve! :D**

 **Thank you for your follows, favs and reviews! 3 What did you think about this chapter? Tell me~!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I only own the plot of this story. J.K. Rowling has created the characters and the surroundings (if we don't count a couple of OCs and some random surroundings).**

 **Warnings: Nothing in particular**

 **Thanks everyone who reviewed/followed/favored this fic! Check the author's note at the end!** '

 _Thank you so much, Harry… Really, thank you for being there for me… Even though like this…'_

Ginny stared at the text message she had written. The woman knew that she should have some kind of a reaction of Luna and Neville having a baby now but she didn't feel like saying anything. She was too numb to say anything – and the fact that she got the information from Harry hurt her in some way. It felt like Harry was telling her about a life they could never have together.

The red-haired woman sent the message to Harry, hoping that he would answer fast. Each minute apart from him made her feel like she was dying. Dying because she missed him so much, dying because he had betrayed her, broken the promises of marriage and living together.

And yet she loved him – and she hated herself for that. Harry hadn't been fair to her actually, he had hurt her in a way lovers should never hurt one another but he had done that.

Still the feeling of love was there and it hadn't faded even a bit. In fact quite the opposite; she had lost something important to her and only now she was able to understand how important he had actually been to her. Ginny sighed, walking into the kitchen. It was time to eat something – she couldn't remember the last time she ate.

Lucius Malfoy woke up when it was almost twelve o'clock in the morning. It made him feel irritated; he didn't usually sleep that long but last night had been quite mentally heavy. First he had gotten the news that the Potter boy wasn't living that far from their location and then Astoria had gotten all paranoid again and kept almost everyone awake for the great part of the night. Only Narcissa had been able to sleep a bit; the head of the Malfoy family couldn't understand how she was able to do that but he suspected that Calming Draught might have had something to do with it.

Lucius stood up and walked to the table where his glass and the whiskey bottle were. It had become his routine after being forced to live in a Muggle world; a glass of whiskey was a great start to the day. He knew that it might not have been a very good thing to do but he couldn't help it anymore.

Sometimes he could see the worry in his son's eyes when the Malfoy heir saw his father with a glass of alcohol. Lucius couldn't blame his son; the alcohol had started to play pretty great role in his life. It felt like the only way to get away from the reality, to escape everything he had to face every day. Lucius didn't feel like talking about his problems to his wife; Narcissa was the one who had a lot on her mind already so Lucius had decided to deal with his own problems.

He gulped down the whiskey and grimaced at the taste; even though it was a routine for him he despised the taste of the liquor. Even though it made one feel warm after drinking it the taste was awfully strong. Lucius sighed, looking at himself from the mirror. His hair looked a bit dirty, he smelled a bit like sweat and he looked pretty tired. _Time for a shower_ , he decided and grabbed the towel, making his way towards the shower.

After cleaning himself up Lucius dressed up and made his way to the kitchen where Draco and Astoria were already sitting and arguing about something. It took a while for Lucius to catch up with the conversation but finally he understood – Draco was a stranger for Astoria once again. The young woman didn't recognize her soon-to-be-husband and she was now trying to understand what the relationship in between Draco and she was. Even Lucius' arrival to the kitchen didn't stop her from blaming the Malfoy heir on lying, didn't stop her from demanding Draco to tell his true identity. Lucius saw the hurt in Draco's eyes; hearing things like that was never easy to take, especially if the words were coming from the love of one's life.

Suddenly Narcissa appeared to the room, holding _The Daily Prophet_ in her hand and with the fearful look in her eyes. Lucius knew that look all too well; Narcissa always had it on her face when something had happened for their family. And true, when he got to see the magazine he gasped.

 ** _Just a disappearance or something else?  
A mystic disappearance in the Ministry_**

 ** _Written by Nathalie Greymore_**

 _It has been rumoured that the rest of the group of the former Dark Lord's supporters, also known as Death Eaters, would have been re-grouping. A few days ago the rumours got even wilder when Amanda Blackwood, 43, disappeared. Blackwood worked in the Ministry at the Department of Mysteries in which there's a lot of top secret information and experiments for example._

 _Blackwood disappeared a few days ago and after that there she hasn't been seen. It goes without saying that she would quite a lot of useful information for Death Eaters and that's why the rumours started. However, the Aurors haven't found any evidence about Death Eaters or dark magic inside the Ministry._

 _So, is this just a disappearance or do we really need to prepare for the next war when we haven't even recovered properly from the last war?  
Do we really need to feel fear again?_

The Daily Prophet _will soon try to contact those who were known as the Dark Lord's supporters and who are still alive. If we are lucky we'll get in contact with the Malfoy family soon, especially the heir of the said family, Draco Malfoy. So, stay tuned for more information!_

The article made Lucius want to vomit but instead of doing that he passed the magazine to Draco. He watched his son become more and more pale until he was almost as pale as a ghost. Then Lucius turned to look at his wife who just stood there, not saying anything. They were having a wordless conversation in between them; it was just a question of time when there would be a certain Potter knocking on their door and demanding answers. Even though Lucius didn't like the idea of convincing the young man to be on their side once again, he wasn't stupid; he knew that Harry's alliance would be now more then welcomed.

The storm was rising, Lucius could feel it in the air.

 **A/N: I'm so so so so so sorry for not updating this fic! I've just had a lot on my mind and I haven't had any inspiration to write this story... Or write anything in particular, except a couple of one-shots.**

 **Writing this fic isn't actually an easy project. Like I've said it's based on my real life and a certain relationship I had in the past. In this chapter I actually tried to see things from Ginny's point of view but I'm not sure how I managed to do it. I still say this: I didn't try to mock her or anything. It would be very, very low of me. I just try to understand some things - and in the beginning Ginny needs to be like this. Believe me or not, I have pretty many plans for this fic!**

 **Reviews would be nice - I really want to know what you think of this chapter! ^_^**


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